SpaceX IPO Opens New Possibilities

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., more commonly known as SpaceX, is the Holy Grail for those who spent their childhood pretending to be astronauts. If Elon Musk makes an initial public offering (IPO) for SpaceX a reality, then the geeks of the world could unite around SpaceX stock.
Even if you weren’t space-crazed as a kid, there’s no denying that a SpaceX IPO could change the world. After all, the goal of SpaceX is to achieve interplanetary travel and an initial public offering could help fund this mission. Elon Musk, the famous CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, Inc., genuinely believes it’s possible to set foot on Mars in his lifetime. If history shows us anything, it’s that Elon Musk usually gets his way.
Musk co-founded PayPal Holdings, Inc. and sold it for $1.0 billion. This was after having sold a previous startup for $300 million. Following these sales, Musk founded Tesla and SpaceX.
Space travel and electric cars are both items that have never been handled successfully by the private market, yet Elon Musk made it happen, or at least he did with electric cars. In fact, Musk’s Tesla IPO was enormously successful, with the stock rising more than 1,051% since it premiered on the stock exchange.
Now it’s time for an IPO. Elon Musk managed to secure a $1.6-billion contract with NASA and book $5.0 billion worth of future launches with SpaceX as a private company. Through SpaceX, Elon Musk has stepped out of the realm of companies and into the sphere of nation states. This guy now competes with governments!

SpaceX Stock Could Help Us Get to Mars

SpaceX is flying at least 12 resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Musk also managed to get $440 million from NASA to ferry astronauts back and forth in its “Dragon” capsule. All told, SpaceX is by far the fastest-growing provider of launch services, with more than 50 missions registered on the company’s manifest.
But by far the coolest SpaceX project is its reusable rockets. The biggest costs in space travel are the rockets that fall away into the ocean after blast-off and don’t get used again. SpaceX has designed and successfully tested rockets that will land safely back on a platform, so they can be reused. Cutting costs would sweeten the notion of a SpaceX IPO even more.
Not that SpaceX has that much fat to trim. The company is cash-positive and earning a tidy profit at present. Elon Musk keeps pushing SpaceX forward, because he knows that the long-term future of space travel demands a lower cost per flight.
The engines for SpaceX’s “Falcon” rockets are 3D-printed, saving the company money, while strengthening the structural integrity of the equipment.
The benefits of a SpaceX IPO could also be seen more intimately here on Earth, as SpaceX recently filed an application to set up a constellation of 4,000 satellites that would broadcast Internet across the planet. Bringing the Internet to remote areas of the world could help lift millions out of poverty. Issuing an initial public offering could help make that a possibility.
Let’s take a look back at seven moments that loom large in the history of SpaceX.

#1 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: Falcon 9

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, “Sputnik 1,” into space. In the decades that followed, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union pushed the human race further into the stars than we’d ever imagined we’d go at that time.
Then progress hit a wall. The end of the Cold War removed the urgency of the space race and innovation stagnated. No one was pushing the boundaries of manned space exploration. Elon Musk saw an opportunity and SpaceX was born.
The SpaceX “Falcon 9” is the first rocket completely designed and built in this millennium. Unlike NASA’s old space shuttle, the SpaceX Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket that “minimizes the number of separation events.” (Source: “Falcon 9,” SpaceX web site, last accessed November 19, 2015.)

#2 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: Dragon

In order to become a viable space exploration firm, SpaceX needed a command module that could carry payloads and be retrofitted to hold passengers. After all, the SpaceX Falcon 9 was a powerful rocket, but there’s no point of launching it without a shuttle to match.
We all know the “Eagle” lander from which Neil Armstrong leapt onto the moon. It was a turning point in human history; it was the first time that one of our own set foot someplace other than Earth. But with the end of the Cold War, space exploration took a back seat.
Elon Musk wasn’t OK with that. On December 8, 2010, SpaceX kick-started space travel once more when the Dragon module, a SpaceX creation, “became the first privately developed spacecraft in history to re-enter from low-Earth orbit.” (Source: “Making History,” SpaceX web site, last accessed November 19, 2015.)

#3 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: ISS Docking

Building a SpaceX rocket and capsule was the first stage of Elon Musk’s plan. Developing a partnership with NASA and the other space agencies around the world was a necessary step to getting SpaceX on track for a manned mission to Mars.
It was truly a memorable moment when, then, in May 2012, when the SpaceX Dragon capsule also became the first private spacecraft to dock at the ISS. Until that point, only national governments had been able to achieve that feat.

#4 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: Grasshopper Landing

The first stage of Musk’s plan for space exploration was to build a rocket, but he wanted SpaceX to develop a way of keeping the cost of space travel cheap by reusing rockets. Usually, the booster engine rockets fall away during after the first stage of flight and crash into the ocean. SpaceX rockets do things a little differently.
When the first-stage rocket, or “Grasshopper,” in SpaceX parlance, breaks away from the Falcon 9, it plummets towards the ocean-landing platform. Midway through the fall, its engines turn back on and slow down its descent, allowing it to land gently. That way it can be reused.
In April 2014, the first-stage rocket from the Falcon 9 almost successfully landed in the Atlantic Ocean. It looked like something out of a science-fiction movie.

#5 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: Reusable Rocket Testing

Carrying on from the earlier theme of reusable rockets, SpaceX started testing the entire Falcon 9 rocket. After all, the Grasshopper was almost fully ready, so why not reuse the whole thing?
In June 2014, SpaceX tested a 1,000-meter flight and landing with the Falcon 9. It worked. That marks the highest jump and safe landing that the company has made thus far. It’s incredible to watch.

#6 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: SpaceX Ferry

SpaceX has carried six payloads up to the ISS, but to this point, it hasn’t transported any astronauts. NASA astronauts have been traveling to the ISS via Russian spacecraft, which became a little inconvenient when tensions sprung up over the conflict in Ukraine earlier this year.
In September of 2014, however, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.6-billion contract to fly American astronauts to the ISS by 2017. Some of the other launches that SpaceX has on its manifest are for the United States Department of Defense, meaning the firm has hit a gold mine of revenue that will keep it profitable for the foreseeable future.

#7 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: Failure

Space travel isn’t easy, as Elon Musk has had to learn repeatedly. The first three launches of the “Falcon 1” failed. Since then, SpaceX has had a few explosions that were covered extensively by the media, but that shouldn’t discourage the company from carrying on.
The history of space travel is littered with failure precisely because it is difficult. After the third failed launch of the Falcon 1, Musk the following wrote to his employees: “A friend of mine wrote to remind me that only 5 of the first 9 Pegasus launches succeeded; 3 of 5 for Ariane; 9 of 20 for Atlas; 9 of 21 for Soyuz; and 9 of 18 for Proton. SpaceX is in this for the long haul and, come hell or high water, we are going to make this work.”
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SpaceX: 7 Landmark Moments Leading Up to the SpaceX IPO

By Gaurav S. Iyer, IFC Published : November 20, 2015

SpaceX IPO Opens New Possibilities

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., more commonly known as SpaceX, is the Holy Grail for those who spent their childhood pretending to be astronauts. If Elon Musk makes an initial public offering (IPO) for SpaceX a reality, then the geeks of the world could unite around SpaceX stock.

Even if you weren’t space-crazed as a kid, there’s no denying that a SpaceX IPO could change the world. After all, the goal of SpaceX is to achieve interplanetary travel and an initial public offering could help fund this mission. Elon Musk, the famous CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, Inc., genuinely believes it’s possible to set foot on Mars in his lifetime. If history shows us anything, it’s that Elon Musk usually gets his way.

Musk co-founded PayPal Holdings, Inc. and sold it for $1.0 billion. This was after having sold a previous startup for $300 million. Following these sales, Musk founded Tesla and SpaceX.

Space travel and electric cars are both items that have never been handled successfully by the private market, yet Elon Musk made it happen, or at least he did with electric cars. In fact, Musk’s Tesla IPO was enormously successful, with the stock rising more than 1,051% since it premiered on the stock exchange.

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Now it’s time for an IPO. Elon Musk managed to secure a $1.6-billion contract with NASA and book $5.0 billion worth of future launches with SpaceX as a private company. Through SpaceX, Elon Musk has stepped out of the realm of companies and into the sphere of nation states. This guy now competes with governments!

SpaceX Stock Could Help Us Get to Mars

SpaceX is flying at least 12 resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Musk also managed to get $440 million from NASA to ferry astronauts back and forth in its “Dragon” capsule. All told, SpaceX is by far the fastest-growing provider of launch services, with more than 50 missions registered on the company’s manifest.

But by far the coolest SpaceX project is its reusable rockets. The biggest costs in space travel are the rockets that fall away into the ocean after blast-off and don’t get used again. SpaceX has designed and successfully tested rockets that will land safely back on a platform, so they can be reused. Cutting costs would sweeten the notion of a SpaceX IPO even more.

Not that SpaceX has that much fat to trim. The company is cash-positive and earning a tidy profit at present. Elon Musk keeps pushing SpaceX forward, because he knows that the long-term future of space travel demands a lower cost per flight.

The engines for SpaceX’s “Falcon” rockets are 3D-printed, saving the company money, while strengthening the structural integrity of the equipment.

The benefits of a SpaceX IPO could also be seen more intimately here on Earth, as SpaceX recently filed an application to set up a constellation of 4,000 satellites that would broadcast Internet across the planet. Bringing the Internet to remote areas of the world could help lift millions out of poverty. Issuing an initial public offering could help make that a possibility.

Let’s take a look back at seven moments that loom large in the history of SpaceX.

#1 Moment Leading to SpaceX IPO: Falcon 9

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, “Sputnik 1,” into space. In the decades that followed, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union pushed the human race further into the stars than we’d ever imagined we’d go at that time.

Then progress hit a wall. The end of the Cold War removed the urgency of the space race and innovation stagnated. No one was pushing the boundaries of manned space exploration. Elon Musk saw an opportunity and SpaceX was born.

The SpaceX “Falcon 9” is the first rocket completely designed and built in this millennium. Unlike NASA’s old space shuttle, the SpaceX Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket that “minimizes the number of separation events.” (Source: “Falcon 9,” SpaceX web site, last accessed November 19, 2015.)

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